We Get There By Walking

Doing my best to find my way.

Candles in the Windows


Advent, the four Sundays which precede Christmas, officially begins this coming Sunday. It is late this year. Often it begins the Sunday after Thanksgiving. One of our Advent/Christmas traditions is to place candles (electric) in the upstairs windows of our house and in the copula/widows watch on the top of our house. In the historic Village in which we live, the simple candles in the windows of a 150+ year old house looks beautiful. This year I couldn’t wait for this coming Sunday. So yesterday afternoon I pulled down the stairs that lead to the attic and the copula and placed my candles in those highest windows. I will add the other candles this evening. A simple, single light in each window.

Maybe that is the best I can do.
Maybe that is what I am to do.
Place a simple candle in the window of my life.
I cannot completely undo the darkness which seems to press in from all sides.
The “big” darkness.
Inequality.
Racism.
Elitism.
The myth of redemptive violence.
Or, the more subtle darkness.
Greed.
Arrogance.
I deserve it.
Mine.
But to find a way each day to add a simple light to whatever window I have or that my life might be.
I can do that.

 

Prepare

The word for this first week in Advent is Prepare.

IMG_1916
Yesterday afternoon I made my way into our attic to find our box of Christmas lights. What I was looking for were the candles we put in each of upstairs windows. A part of my Advent tradition is to have them in place and lit beginning with the first Sunday in Advent, and on each evening through Epiphany. Other decorations – tree, angels, Christmas stockings – will follow and will find their assigned place in our home, but the candles always come first.
A simple light in our windows.
But for me they are also reminder and hope and witness.
A light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

Advent – Star

stars1
To see stars
You have step from the light into the darkness.
And stand still.
And look up.
Or, lay on your back.
And gaze into the depths of space.
And dream dreams
Big enough and bold enough to reach from here to there.
But we are too busy for such nonsense.
And, too cautious about the darkness.

I imagine the Magi of old not as great and noble kings,
But more like Tom Sawyer
And Huckleberry Finn
Lying on their backs and looking at the stars.
And, saying to one another
“Look! There is another one. It looks like a bear”
“And another, it looks like a fish.”
“Look! There’s a new one we’ve not seen before.”
“I am ready for an adventure. How about you?”
“Yes, Let’s go and see where it leads and what we find.”

 

Remembering His Birthday

mlk
His birthday was yesterday.
He would have been 85.
And, on Monday, we celebrate the day set aside to honor him.
Since his death in 1968, we have lionized him and rightly so.
His wisdom and words continue to move us and to inspire us.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only the light can do that.
Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” 

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope. 

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” 

‘I have a dream…” 

And while we remember and cherish and hold onto his words, we must also remember how controversial and challenging he was, and how much, when he was alive, some feared and hated him.  The Civil Rights Movement was not merely about the words he spoke, but it was about police dogs and fire hoses and bombings and lynchings.  It was about taunts and threats and secret FBI investigations. He was assassinated not so much because of what he said, but because of what he was doing and what he stood for. And others who stood with him were also killed or injured or jailed or lost their jobs.  And, when he spoke out against the Vietnam War in a sermon at Riverside Church in New York City, he was vilified for his remarks.

I am mindful of this today because, in death, we have tamed Martin Luther King, Jr.
And, if he were alive today I think he would be anything, but tame.
At least that is my hope.
I hope he would be finding some way to turn us around and point us in the direction of peace.
I hope he would be chiding and coaxing and encouraging us to hang on for dear life as we do what we can to bend that long arc of history in the direction of justice.

That is the Martin Luther King, Jr. I want to remember.
The Martin Luther King, Jr., I believe, we need to remember.

An Advent Prayer

candle
O God, we hear, again, the echo of those ancient words:
“The people who walk in darkness have seen a great light.
And following on the heal of those words, we add these:
May it be so, O God, may it be so.
For in a hundred different ways we know something about the darkness;
From deep darkness which threatens to swallow us up;
To shadows which push in upon us from the edges of our lives;
From heart-ache and heart break;
To a nagging sense of emptiness that leaves us longing for something more.
And what we need, O God…
And what we hope for and long for;
Is some glimpse of that great light:
That not only pushes back the darkness, but also begins to show us the way;
From where ever it is we are right now;
Towards that place we long to be.
Amen

Tags

Advent beauty change children Christmas church community compassion Confirmation dreams Easter faith family God God with us goodness grace gratitude Holy Week hope imagination Jesus kindness light love memorial day memories Nicaragua paying attention peace peace on earth politics prayer quiet racism reflection resurrection seeing sermon Thanksgiving thank you time understanding values war
Paul Alcorn

Several things I believe:

The most critical religious question of our day is how we will answer the question "Who is my neighbor?"

That which we know and name as God is more about the connections between us than something above us.

And this, from the poet Maya Angelou...
"Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better."